Egg Salad Recall (17 States)

WAYNE, W.Va. (AP) - October 22, 2006 - A food company says it is recalling its egg salad in Pa., N.J., Del. And 14 other states because it could cause fatal infections in children or the elderly.

Ballard's Farm Sausage says tests showed mixed results for a bacterium that can cause serious or fatal infections in young children or elderly people.
It also can cause miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women.

Ballard's president says the company has temporarily suspended producing egg salad while it investigates the contamination.


http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=business&id=4683939
Listeria, I believe.

Can be unpleasant to dogs, small children and hamsters

Who would? I don't think there could be anything more likely to spoil.

But I only make my own. I try not to buy any kind of premade salad with a mayonaisse dressing, it's just asking for trouble. My one exception is cole slaw.

I totally agree with you. Make it yerself!

is that egg salad made in one location makes it to 17 different states!. There is something severely wrong with our food distribution system.

:shrug:

This shows that theoretically when things are working correctly, food can be transported to different and further places. I live in a small town and itis actually amazing at how the variety and availability of food has increased over the past years at our supermarkets. As much as I hate to say to, Wal-Mart has done much to improve the quality and diversity of meat and produce available here.

How does it speak ill to you that something made in a single location can make it to 17 different states?

Successful for a few major industries/corporations, yes. Successful for the people, the farmers, and the long-term security and stability of our food supply? Not so much.

I wish I had more time to find some good links and elaborate more, but I will give you the short version.

Essentially, the system we currently have in place is not efficient or sustainable. The food we are getting is seldom local, which means it was most likely harvested long before ripe, and has lost nutrition since it was picked. It is nowhere near as healthy as it could/should be.

We are paying as much for the storage and transportation as we are for the food itself. If I buy a fresh green pepper at my local supermarket, it is quite possible that it was grown in the county I live in, but it has most likely traveled to Chicago (or further) before coming back to my area. Several people have probably made a few cents on it in the meantime (shippers, brokers, refrigerated warehouses), but be assured the farmer who grew it is barely making enough to get by, if that.

If I had been able to get it locally, directly from the farmer, or if local grocery stores bought directly from area farmers rather than from the big distributors, I could have gotten a much fresher green pepper and the farmer could have made more money. A lot less fossil fuels would have been wasted.

Our system is currently inefficient and wasteful. Local economies are hurt because most of the profit made from the growing and selling of food is going out of local areas and into the hands of major corporations. Many counties and states (including mine) are trying to come up with ways to make distribution more efficient and keep it in the local economy. But the pressures and monopolistic nature of the food distribution industry (especially companies like WalMart) is almost impossible to overcome.

As individuals, many of us are able to make the choice to support our local economies and farmers and, in doing so, support the long-term viability of our food system. But not everyone has that choice, and the idea that consumer choices can change the whole way the industry works is a nice one, but not a realistic one. Just like with the media, or any other area where power/market share is hyper-concentrated, mere consumers are no match for an entrenched system which has the support of the gov't and vice versa...

The concept of 'Food Security' in this context is a relatively new one - not in the sense of food safety, contamination, etc - but in the sense of overall access to food.

Cases like this, or the recent spinach e. coli outbreak, are indicative of the problem. Imagine there was some virus more powerful and deadly than what we have been seeing. If our food distribution system wasn't so huge and concentrated, we wouldn't have to worry nearly as much about widespread contamination and illness/death. It would be much easier to identify and control this sort of thing, and it wouldn't effect such huge areas.

And the most important thing to remember in all this, IMO, is we are talking about food. This is the most fundamental necessity there is (in addition to water, of course). Many of us are lucky. We have lots of choices. But many people do not. It is necessary to ensure that food is and will continue to be accessible. Increasing reliance on fossil fuels for storage and transportation, and increasing concentration of manufacture and distribution of this most basic need is a recipe for disaster.

As I mentioned before, some areas are working on this. People are beginning to recognize the importance of supporting American farmers - not corporate factory farms, and not South American imports - but rather the long-term importance of creating self-sufficient, sustainable and efficient ways to distribute food.

And there are other aspects too, like the effect of NAFTA and other issues of trade, labor and farming standards, so-called 'regulation' which isn't enforced when it should be, and often serves to protect the corporations rather than the consumer when it is...it goes on and on...

If you google 'food security' you will find a lot of angles to this concept - including hunger/poverty issues and strictly 'environmental' concerns. But you can also find information from groups and state/local governments that recognize the relationships between all these things and the importance of working on new ways to deal with this before our food supply is at an even greater risk.

In peace,

Megan

Or fill a trash bag with soil and grow salad greens. The system is breaking down and it will get bad in a hurry.

Where I live, fuel costs are at the point that many grain harvesters flat out refuse to come to bring in the harvest. That is the beginning of the end of our 'successful system'

Plant a garden. Time is coming when it could make a very huge difference.

gets us. personally, i am glad to see this happening. maybe people will get p*ssed and things will change.

ellen fl

Most likely this showed bacterial growth during a periodic test of equipment that caused the food made between the last clean test and this one to be recalled.

Bacterial contamination can come from ANYTHING, someone with a cold, someone not washing their hands properly, someone wiping their nose. All of these are possible sources, including contamination by the testtaker doing any of the above.


How would you like to see things change? What could have been done differently?

Yum yum!!

I love egg salad and this acutally put me in the mood for some. Time to boil some eggs.

Listeria...ew.

The problem arises when it is allowed to grow in a nice moist closed environment, such as a package of food. It has nothing to do with meat or eggs; you can get it from any food source that has been packaged and not cooked just before consuming. That's why most problems come from cold cuts and salads.

we're talking about food, yes? Food that comes from a sausage manufacturer, yes? Regardless of the many ways "the problem arises" it would appear that possibly this was spread through improper handling in a facility that handles large amounts of processed meat.

The CDC says:
Listeria monocytogenes is found in soil and water. Vegetables can become contaminated from the soil or from manure used as fertilizer.
Animals can carry the bacterium without appearing ill and can contaminate foods of animal origin such as meats and dairy products. The bacterium has been found in a variety of raw foods, such as uncooked meats and vegetables, as well as in processed foods that become contaminated after processing, such as soft cheeses and cold cuts at the deli counter. Unpasteurized (raw) milk or foods made from unpasteurized milk may contain the bacterium.

Listeria is killed by pasteurization and cooking; however, in certain ready-to-eat foods such as hot dogs and deli meats, contamination may occur after cooking but before packaging.

and ENFORCEMENT of basic health standards for corporations might be the best (and most cost efficient) place to start.

Regulation, inspections, enforcement of standards is good. If businesses can't stay in business by obeying safe standards, better they should fail. It is just a whining argument from the corporations because they can never get enough profits. They will cut corners until we are all dead.

Re-regulate! Hire back inspectors and enforcers. That'll make Americans safer AND create some jobs again.

The real threats facing most of us are not swarthy guys in turbans. The REAL threats facing most of us are all around and pretty correctable.

and basic health standards were followed. The company had a voluntary recall after and anomolous test indicated the POTENTIAL presence of this bacteria.

No one has said where it was found or when. Logic says that it was found on a piece of processing equipment used to process these lots of material and that they recall the lots between the last clean test and this one. No one is saying that any of the bacteria got into any marketed containers.

May reasons for testing this equipment, periodic testing as required by SOP's, audit by a customer of theirs, govt. audit (I doubt that since they didn't issue a govt warning or enformecement action), found someone not following SOP's in another part of the plant and went back to everything they worked on. The fact is, the testing protocol worked in this case.

How would more regulators have helped that?

Make sure we are calling for the right reforms.

Corporations arguing that regulations forcing them to be decent citizens are too much of a burden in most industries. In this one, the company behaved well. It doesn't always go down that way.

Damage to health which could be avoided is also a burden. There need to be better regulation of all food processing and real inspections/enforcement. We can't rely on the good intentions of all producers. Many would just as soon take our $$ and hand us poison as look at an alternative.

Food producers want to irradiate foods so they can cut corners on how they process (and contaminate) what we eat. Much easier to whack a steer up fast and dirty, spilling gut materials and fecal matter hither and yon then just irradiate it. OK to eat shit? Inspectors and enforcement of safe practices is better.

This time, things went right. I don't venture to hope all companies are as careful.
It's like restaurants, some pass inspections with flying colors every time. Some will try to get away with all sorts of dangerous practices to cut costs. But we all do better when there are inspections. Imagine how bad the violators would be if they didn't have to pass muster once in awhile.

this shows that the current regs and practices are working. So how can anyone draw the line that more enforcement or reegs are needed from this case.

By the way, irradiating is already used in MANY applications, in fact many of the drugs that you take as "sterile" are in fact terminally sterilied, i.e. irradiated. They are processed in conditions that are sanitary or even "super-sanitary" but are not classifed as necessary to produce a sterile product themselves, so they are then sent to a final step called terminal sterilization, which makes them sterile products. This is a common accepted practice and does not mean that they are any dirtier than normal products out there, in fact they are processed in the smae conditions all other drugs are required to be produced under, they are just sterilized at a different step of the process. This does not mean that you can get shit into them or use dirty water for processing, it is just a different way of processing to get the same result.

Nope.

Because this case is an example of how it worked. What outcome would you like to have seen in a case like this? What should have worked differently? The fact is it worked right which shows that things can work correctly. I guarantee you there are some lots of food that aren't released b/c they don't meet spec for micro contamination. You don't hear about them b/c they don't get to the market place. You heard about this one b/c 1) it was a voluntary recall and they got the messag out 2) There is a heightened sense of awareness right now.

This type of contamination is a result of someone not following procedures. When it comes down to it, all procedures have to be followed by a person, and no regulator or amount of regulation is going to ensure that 100% of the people follow regs 100% of the time.

What should be done differently?

You cant' just scream "we need more regulation" with an example of a situation where the system worked as it should have. The system caught a potential problem before it became a problem and caught someone not following procedure. Would you have a regulator at every single processing station following every single plant employee?

What is your solution?

How about the first letter? Can we buy a vowel?


Yesterday, saw milk with an expiration sometime in December. Guess it's possible. It just struck me as challenging. I passed.

Is it sheer laziness that drives people to PURCHASE egg salad rather than make it fresh themselves????

Sheesh. Egg salad is one of the easiest things in the world to make. You hard boil your eggs, cool and peel and chop them, then you add mayonnaise. If you want to get fancy you can add other things for flavor and texture, but none of this requires much energy or money or time. You certainly don't need to trust it to some stranger in some corporate-owned factory.

Avoid unnecessary processed foods. You will be healthier and safer for it.

Working two or more part time jobs, juggling kids' daycare, running the errands we all have really makes it hard for some to fix meals from scratch.

I like to do the cooking. I have the luxury of time. Some don't.

if you consider the time you wait in line at the fast food place:)

It takes a few minutes to boil the eggs, and about 45 seconds to "assemble" the egg salad..and it's better tasting and cheaper too :)

Don't get me wrong, I am a home cooking advocate and I mention the real costs of all parental units working when young friends consider whether everybody goes back to work right after a birth in the family.

But time and energy are a real problem with too many people trying to stay afloat in an every shrinking land of opportunity.

I am really amazed at how little many people are actually working for when they take out all the costs that those really long hours create in their lives.

Time to fix dinner and eat well is time better spent. But at sub-standard wages, it is time not everyone can find.

And I want to watch you make 45 second egg salad. I'v been cooking for 43 years and have never seen THAT trick. Takes me longer just to get the eggs outta the shell and wash the celery.

Then, there is cleanup time.

:rofl:

Of course I was exaggerating, but after the chopping of the onion, celery, pickle, what is there but stirring it all together ?

Doesn't take all that much time :):hi:

with the kids? Yep.

Well, they aren't even fancy, just some plastic and wire - but mistermonkey has one and I swear he can make egg salad in a minute flat. Of course, he only uses mayo and pepper - no celery or onion or anything fun.

It looks a lot like this only ours isn't even metal:

and wash the celery. And I know I can chop the celery in a food processor :eyes:
The 45 seconds to make egg salad is just a silly and pointless claim.

Real time problems for overworked people, blown off with hyperbole just won't be addressed with wishful thinking.

Just jumping into (what I thought was a relatively lighthearted) a conversation about egg salad making.

:shrug:

to me. People stressed to the point they can't take care of meals is something I take very seriously. And giving them understanding goes a long way to making them political allies.

peace,
hm

I have made no comments (let alone assumptions or judgments) about the struggle people have balancing time, money, healthy eating and the lure of convenience foods. I am on your side here. :shrug:

Trying to explain that I am not attacking you, but, rather, the notion that I was engaged in a discussion I thought was lighthearted.

I understand the deeper issues here

Fill 'er up in the morning with food & turn it on, and dinner is ready when I get home. I highly recommend them to anyone who is pressed for time for meal preparation.

for all the help it has given to domestic life in a way-too-busy world!

:D

The 45 seconds was for ASSEMBLING the egg salad, not preparing the whole thing.

I love egg salad and made some just the other day. Nine minutes to boil the eggs, 2 mins to chop the red onions (while the eggs were boiling), 2 more minutes to shell the eggs (4), and yes, 45 seconds to ASSEMBLE the salad.

the cost of that egg salad and all the other convenience foods they no doubt buy???

Sounds foolish to me. I make most my food from scratch, and as a result my food costs are quite low, so I don't have to bring home as much money, and don't have to work as hard or as many hours, so I have MORE energy for cooking.

Plus, I don't waste time watching the IDIOT BOX.

I make a dollar every four minutes. By pure economics, it is usually cheaper to buy many convience especially since there are only two of us. Non convience items aren't free and if you cannot use it all before it becomes a food safety issue, then you save no money.
Maybe, the ironic thing though is that I work in a food plant and work both in quality and research and development.

I made the mistake of trying some egg salad at a salad bar and it was NASTY. Homemade is so much better and a snap to make.

:eyes:

I mean, most people know that eggs go bad pretty quickly.

I saw it in a local supermarket some weeks back: $4.99 lb.

NFW would I buy that. I make my own, always.

The stuff at the market is :puke: inducing.

Is Phil Moscowitz on the case?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061177/

You're just asking for it. That stuff goes bad when you look at it wrong.

I always make my own.

It's to easy for bacteria to grow in processed Egg Salad, just like what happened.

It's not like it's that hard to make it yourself.